Protect the Philippine election from smart cheating

The Commission on Elections has opted to continue the use of Smartmatic for the 2019 elections. Revelations made by Atty. Glenn Chong and results of examinations made in the Marcos v. Robredo vice presidential contest indicate possible massive cheating in 2016.

A simple solution can check this cheating and return the people's trust in the electoral exercise: a count of the voter's receipts.

We propose that at the end of the voting day, the Board of Election Inspectors convene with the watchers of the national candidates or their parties and count the votes contained in the voters' receipts. These receipts are kept in a separate box that the BEI can open and count. We can limit the counting only to candidates for senators, congressmen, governors, mayors and partylists.

After counting, these can be compared with the tally posted at the door as well as those transmitted to the city. This simple procedure will require no extra cost except for the small amount of time allocated for this activity.

A separate written petition will be sent to the COMELEC to formalize this petition.